Experimental test of the PCAC-hypothesis in charged current neutrino and antineutrino interactions on protons

Data obtained with the bubble chamber BEBC at CERN are used for the first significant test of Adler's prediction for the neutrino and antineutrino-proton scattering cross sections at vanishing four-momentum transfer squaredQ2. An Extended Vector Meson Dominance Model (EVDM) is applied to extrapolate Adler's prediction to experimentally accessible values ofQ2. The data show good agreement with Adler's prediction forQ2→0 thus confirming the PCAC hypothesis in the kinematical region of high leptonic energy transfer ν>2 GeV. The good agreement of the data with the theoretical predictions also at higherQ2, where the EVDM terms are dominant, also supports this model. However, an EVDM calculation without PCAC is clearly ruled out by the data.